mission45

The Logical and Illogical in Business

August 31, 2016

There is a movie that I like very much. It’s Stagecoach (1939) directed by one of my favorite directors John Ford. The storyline is quite simple: a stagecoach journey becomes complicated when Apache Indians start attacking it during the trip.

There is a story about this movie that I like even more. When John Ford was asked why in the climactic chase scene, the Indians didn’t simply shoot the horses to stop the stagecoach, director John Ford replied, “Because that would have been the end of the movie.” In addition, Apaches would have stolen the stagecoach horses because, in their culture, horses were valuable when calculating a warrior’s worth. Storyline, in this case, is only a frame for a story about psychology of characters – passengers on a stagecoach in the wild, wild west.

When I started working in business I was sure that everything over there must be very logical and very rational. Sure, you do have some logic and rules in art too, but it’s a much more irrational area of life. But business? It should be logical, shouldn’t it?

But pretty soon I realized two very important things.

Internally: Do not center your time and energy around events and their logic. Focus on participants of those events and their logic. Psychology of characters. (check my post About Demons)

Externally: Learn a lot about your Apache if you want to drive your coach to the very end of the journey.

Now, to be totally honest: I’m telling you this and giving advice, but with the first one I’m still struggling. It’s human nature to follow certain logic in order to protect sanity and integrity. So, if you are frequently exposed to events that oppose your logic, then you have to invest a lot of effort to understand the participants, their motivation and to put all pieces together into one (for you) logical story.

Two challenges are present here: after some time spent in a place that works against any logic, you can start thinking and acting the same way. Quite quickly actually, you can find yourself justifying things that you would judge heavily in the recent past. And second one – it’s emotionally exhausting. Then you start questioning yourself, your own thinking, the purpose of your acts etc. Quite often this can be a vicious circle that is very hard to get out of. There is no universal advice how to overcome this situation. But, one useful thing for me was frequent reality check with the people I trust and with the people who are outside of the vicious circle. Neutral, with a fresh view and without any personal interest within the situation.

After fighting this internal battle, the real battle starts. Because, there are always some Apache groups chasing you or looking toward you from the top of a rocky mountain. Of course, I’m not going to preach now about the “Knowing your enemy” thing. There are many books about it. You can probably pay for an online military course about it as well. But, what I would like to add to the first part of this story is the fact that an enemy also has his/her own internal struggles and things that are not very logical as well. Or at least not logical for you. If you were to analyze the Apache Indians you would probably say: they are great at riding horses, they are very good with arrows and guns, fighting to the very end etc. But would you say they wouldn’t kill a horse because it is represents great value in their culture? The same way, you should check what is important for your business competitors, for example, a part from obvious things: market share, profit or management bonus. Is it in their company culture to have sustainable growth instead of big hits toward competition? Do they have a CEO that is facing a resignation so he/she is ready for desperate moves and measures just to save his/her ass? Are they ready to make illegal moves in order to win?

Understanding business is quite easy for people with average intelligence and skills. Understanding people in business is a totally different game. But cheers to that! That’s what makes it interesting, dramatic and fun. Just like a good movie!
Work-Life Balance: Prevention Instead of Healing

August 22, 2016
I have to admit something. I’m writing about all those business/psychology related topics but I never read a book about it. I read some books about business and some books about psychology, but never one about self-help in this particular area of topics. If you ask me why, it’s probably due to the fact that I have never felt the need to read one before and also due to limited free time that I had during the last 15 years, that I was using to read/watch/listen to something else.

Now, when I managed to allow myself a couple of months of break from work, and I started writing about all those topics, I also started reading – not books – but articles about different issues from different authors.

One topic is predominant. The topic, of course, concerns a work-life balance. It goes together with burn-out syndrome stories and advice. Followed by how to keep good and talented people on board. Of course, I have probably read below 1% of articles on those topics, but my general impression is that most of the authors are focused on solving the problem when it’s already there. Healing, not prevention.

Advice like: create time that is only for you and your family, switch off your phone after 6 pm, refresh yourself daily, spend time with friends and family… Honestly, this all sounds to me like a recovery from pneumonia or another even more serious condition.

Based on my experience and intuition I would propose a different approach. Create environment where you are not going to come to the point that you have to apply all those “healing” methods. Easier said than done. I know. But try something like this:
1. Recruitment is the key! Do your best to recruit people that fit into your team or your vision of team, 100%. Find people that will understand why they should not call after 6pm. For me, getting a call after 6 pm was never an issue. It was always about who is calling and how he/she is talking to me. Even if we are talking about junior positions, I would say that recruiting young people that inspire you, that behave in a way that is pushing you to be better – can also be very important. For example, when I had an intern who was ready to question things, to express his/her opinion out loud, to challenge my decisions – I also felt obliged to do the same toward the structures above me. You know how I always say that in a good movie everything is about good timing. Well, the second most important thing is good casting. And if casting is not good, the only thing that you can do is to cut someone out in editing. And that’s already healing. Or, to be even more precise – surgery.
1. Learn to speak up! And actively support culture of speaking up. Just like with families, in a working environment most of the small problems develop into huge problems due to the fact that people stay silent about it. Of course, in a complex corporate structures it’s not easy to be the one that voices the issues and speaks up about what is wrong. It’s easy to get fired like that. You will find much more people just smiling and confirming everything that their bosses say. But if you start practicing constructive and criticism with style I’m sure you can become a strong voice that will not be branded as someone who is always complaining.
1. Get to know yourself. Think well if you are the kind of person for a corporate life or a small business? For start-up or family business? The difference is huge, although the same things can happen to you in all those structures. Many small business owners told me that they never sleep well. Their working day never stops. On the other hand, many managers from big companies were devastated with feeling tortured, exhausted, powerless or useless. Advice such as “Pick a boss, not a job” sounds very sexy on nicely designed posters signed by the smart people who say that. But in reality this is hardly possible. I picked a boss but he left to another affiliate after 6 months. Instead of this, I would say: Pick the type of working environment, not a job. And then contribute to the further development of that environment in a direction that will prevent any damage to your work-life balance.
Of course that those three principles will not solve all work-life balance related issues. But I consider them a good start for my own new start. And we all have to learn much more about prevention. You will hear about prevention all the time when it comes to physical health. Change nutrition, start working out, don’t sit too long in front of the computer etc. How much effort do we make to prevent any damage to our work-life balance which is the base of our mental health in these days of modern living?

I would like to conclude with one of the key things that I learned during the last few years. Work- life balance can’t be the company’s KPI. Some HR people have to treat it like that in order to earn their salaries. But, actually, it’s a very personal responsibility of all of us. HR can be there just to offer certain technical frameworks.

Good luck and sometimes say “Cheers” not only to your big achievements and good salaries but also to a good balance that you are able to achieve.
Can You Learn Good Storytelling?

August 18, 2016

This is the first question that every trainer of storytelling techniques in business has to answer. And they are all going to tell you, with a big smile: Yes! Of course! That’s not something reserved only for the gifted and talented ones.

And I will, more or less, agree with them. But the process of learning is in my opinion much more complex and lasts longer than one or two training sessions.

When I delivered my first storytelling training a few months ago to a group of HR professionals, most of them gave me feedback that they feel that this session should be just a start of some kind of a long term process. And I completely agree with them.

From my experience so far, many top level executives from different industries are not good in storytelling. Even when they are well prepared by their communication advisers. Either they don’t use it at all, or they use it in a way that is far below their other skills. And many of them are superior businessmen/businesswomen with good track records of results. Of course, I have to say that media guys that I worked with have much higher scores in average, but that’s in a way logical. Most of them were journalist before.

Why is it that someone who is a world class business executive can’t stand in front of 5, 50 or 500 people and tell a good story?

Instead of giving advice, I will tell you what I have done to learn to be a good storyteller (people say I am – sorry if this sounds arrogant J )

When I was a kid, my grandfather used to tell me a story every night. I lived with my grandparents and my grandfather was a Serbian language and literature professor. He was good in telling stories. Later, when I was a bit older, he used to read the papers of his students to me and we would analyze it together. And give marks.

Then, when I learned to read I started devouring books. I still remember one summer, I was around 9 or 10, when I went to my grandmother who lived in a village and spent 10 days there reading all the time. I read everything by Hemingway that was translated to Serbian.

In order to be accepted to my University I spent a year in Kinoteka (amazing place in Belgrade that screens old movies every day) watching 3 movies per day. Mostly movies from best directors and storytellers in the world.

My best friends from high school were more than capable of discussing stories with me. My friend Jelena is a person who read nearly each and every book in the world, Nenad became a movie director, Djordje became a cinematographer, another Jelena – a world-class journalist…

During studies… Do I have to explain drama and script writing studies?

What I want to say is that even if we take as given the fact that I have some talent that I was born with, it’s also very much about constant learning and non-stop practicing. As I already explained in my previous post – storytelling can be used everywhere. From a simple e-mail to your colleague to an important presentation for the board members. Or simply writing your personal blog or diary (if you are a bit more old-fashioned).

The trouble with some successful business people is that very often they become focused only on their business. They read about their business, they discuss their business with friends, they eat and breathe their business. If they studied business administration or economy before – then they have spent too many years without listening or reading too many good stories.

I can give you techniques, tricks and methodology to build a story and tell it in a solid way, but my first advice would be: take some time to listen/watch/discuss good stories. Take your team to the theater instead of taking them to a team building in a pub. And then the next day, discuss with them about nothing else than the story from the play. Have you ever read Poetics by Aristotle? It lasts less than an average useless PowerPoint presentation and you can open so many good questions and start learning about the art of storytelling.

There is definitely an increasing trend of good storytelling in business. Not because that’s something new. Telling stories and listening to them is one of the oldest human needs. Modern living and technology offer so many tools and different stories are all around us: in pictures, words, motion pictures, sounds… Can you afford not to be able to tell a good story about your product or your start-up? Can you afford to stand in front of your team and not be able to motivate them with a story well told?

To conclude – do you need talent for storytelling? It would be nice to have some. But it’s not a must.

Do you need time to learn it? Yes. Quite some. Because it’s not like learning Excel.

Do you need help? Well, it’s like with getting a perfect body for the beach. You can do it by yourself, but it can be faster with a good coach or a gym buddy.

Cheers to joy of learning good storytelling! Believe me – it’s one of the best things that you can do for yourself.

Movie recommendation for this weekend is Stagecoach (1939) by John Ford. Lazy summer weekend is perfect time for watching one of the best westerns of all time. I will also refer to this movie in one of my posts next week. Not that I’m giving you homework, but… 🙂 Recommended drink: whiskey and Perrier.
About Demons

August 18, 2016

I could have dedicated this post to angels as well. Maybe that would be nice. To write about the good. But this is actually not going to be post about the evil. It’s about demons in all of us that we very often don’t understand and that we often have to face in working environment. You know that situation when you ask: “Why is he/she doing that?” or “Why am I doing this?”. And you don’t have the clear answer.

We all come to the office carrying certain baggage. Whether it is a large suitcase packed many years ago or just hand luggage after a bad weekend or a fight with your family members – it influences our behavior in the office.

Most of it is something that people overcome easily and after a short period of time. But sometimes, if the baggage is too bulky and people can’t deal with it, it can evolve from interpersonal challenges, bad periods and phases into something that I call – demons.

When it goes beyond aggressive career aspirations, lack of emotional intelligence or a troubling personal life that affects the working environment – It’s all, in most of the cases, connected with the past. I’m not a psychologist. So I will try not to write like one. I will give you a couple of profiles of frequent demons and by doing that I will have to scratch the surface of some analytical theories.

Demon No. 1 / Tortured Apprentice

Unfortunately, many young people have a very traumatic outset of their careers. They often have incompetent and not very smart superiors, they go through many frustrations and in many cases, through mobbing. Mobbing is, especially among younger people, justified by a single sentence: “They are beginners, they should go through this boot camp”. I will not get into discussing the area of sexual harassment because that’s a whole separate topic and I’m not competent to discuss it. But it’s there.

And then, one-day, the frustrated beginner becomes a boss. And then, some of them know exactly what they should not do to their reports and they become good managers and leaders, but some of them can’t overcome their demons from the past. And they start torturing the environment around them in an even more brutal way. Victims of control freaks become even bigger control freaks. Rude and arrogant bosses from the past continue to live though new generations. It’s the legacy of a bad leader.

Demon No. 2 / High Ambitions – Low Capabilities

This one is very hard to survive. We have all met, somewhere during our careers, those extremely ambitious people who think that they should either succeed or die. And then, very often they get this Egyptian Pharaoh syndrome (this syndrome actually means something else, but I like it in this context) – where they think that all people around them should die as well, in case of their failure, or what they perceive as “death”.

The biggest problem is when that kind of people has a serious lack of a certain important capability. It doesn’t mean that they are stupid or incapable to do some kind of a job. They can even be fantastic in certain special areas or have very developed selected competences. But, very often they have quite limited emotional and social intelligence. And they desperately want leadership roles – because they are ambitious. Instead of becoming superior specialists for some areas they stream toward higher positions and managing people – or, to be precise, torturing people on a daily basis.

Demon No. 3 / Family Secrets

Until recently I was not ready to accept that whatever we do is somehow connected to our family and to our childhood. Then I have experienced several situations which proved on my personal example that this is 100% true. In order to avoid naïve and amateur use of psychoanalysis I will just list a couple of examples, that I’m sure you can all recognize. I’m not going to interpret it. It’s DIY exercise.

Surviving violence (of any kind) as a child, and now reacting in a very strong manner when exposed to it. Even if it’s violence toward other people. My case, for example.

Suffering serious lack of attention during childhood and now acting like an attention whore all the time.

Having divorced parents focused on their new lives, and now desperately needing the attention, support and love of their managers. Those people often claim they don’t care about it. But actually they care big time.

Smart but lonely child standing alone in a school yard. Now pushy boss forcing his/her employees to be friends, and stay after work to “have fun”.

We all have our challenges, conflicts, problems, wounds… If we are well raised, we are trying to respect people around us and trying not to put pressure on them due to our personal issues. If those issues become demons, then – professional help is needed.

How to deal with people with “demons” if they don’t want to accept help? I would give very simple answer: if you are strong enough and you have reason to fight for – fight them. If not – run away! Faster the better.

Movie recommendation for the weekend is The Devil Wears Prada (2006). Just for fun. With a remark that I have met quite some devils – but not all of them were wearing Prada. Some due to lack of money some due to lack of taste. Recommended drink – Château Vannières 2015 Bandol Rosé. Cheers!
Be Careful: You Are Overpaid

August 14, 2016
I believe that in a global research, a majority of employees would state that they are underpaid. There probably actually is such a research but I was too lazy to find it. Sounds logical. In South East Europe this is for sure over indexed. Most of us is thinking that we should have higher salaries.

And to be clear at the very beginning: I’m not talking here about the people who have their own businesses, family business or make a living being free artists. Or play football. This is about us, corporate servants. Us, working in more or less decent local or international companies, on decent jobs.

Me and my friends, a few successful professionals were discussing if we are paid enough or not, a few days ago, in a fancy Belgrade night club, after a few drinks. The majority was OK with their salaries, stating, however, that they could be a bit higher. Then I started thinking: where is the line when you can say that you are well paid and if you cross that line – can you say that you are overpaid? Is there such a thing as overpaid?

Every business has certain logic, P&L, revenue potential, long range plans, forecasts… And there is a certain range of salaries that makes sense according to a budget and business plan. Plus or minus 30% based on some specific circumstances.

But this is why I think it’s not good if you are significantly better paid then people of a similar level in similar companies on your market. By significantly I’m talking about 3x, 5x or more.
1. If your company pays you 3x or 5x then what is a logical salary for that position and industry/market, there is a fat chance that they expect from you to do things that are not actually in your job description. Some of those things might be barely legal. They might go from using a range of personal connections to finish some kind of work, to entertaining business partners in a way that you can’t put in official expense report. Use your imagination for more plastic examples.
1. If you are paid significantly better than the referential group of your peers, your company might expect that you leave your personal life and hand it over to some other people. Or put it on hold for a decade or two. It becomes much easier for your superior to start ruining your work-life balance and justifying that with the extraordinary conditions that you have. The most dangerous thing here is that after some time you also start to think that way. You don’t even need the evil superior.
1. If you are overpaid it becomes very hard for you to change the job. Yes, we all say it’s not all about the salary. We want some other things from our jobs. But, when you are extremely well paid it’s hard to go down to a 30% of your current salary. Not due to the money you need, but due to a perception that you are going down with your career. And this works quite similarly for every salary category that goes over covering all basic needs. In this way you became a more probable victim of mobbing or become a part of a system pathology in the workplace.
1. You can create an idea about yourself, that you are very important. That you are doing something so big and that you are irreplaceable. And then, overnight, you lose your job because after a while there is someone younger ready to do all that and even more for 50% less. Or your company decides to leave the market. If you were indeed so good and important then you will continue as an entrepreneur without any significant problems. But if that was actually not the case – then you are in trouble. You will experience some pain. I watched some people in that situation. It’s not nice and it’s not easy.
I know that, taking into account that this is a country/region that has 400-600 EUR average salary, this post belongs to a category “The Rich Also Cry” but for a professional that has more than average but still isn’t actually rich, just normal – this temptation can be quite realistic. Amount itself is very relative and not crucial for this story.

Cheers to temptations! And good (but not too good) salaries.
You Are Perfect and Still Nothing Works?

August 14, 2016

For all of you who have spent at least 10 minutes reading my texts, this new peculiar example is not going to be a surprise. To the rest, I can only say – get back and read a couple of other articles to get the picture.

Very often I think about Nicole Scherzinger. No, not in that way and not during the night.

This lady is very close to perfection. She is beautiful, to the surprise of many – a fantastic singer, she is a top class dancer, she can act, she is entertaining. I never met her but she seems like a nice person. Although, believe it or not, media can create a wrong impression about someone or something. I know that. I worked in media.

She is hard working, participating in many projects, improving her skills all the time, challenging herself… But still – she is a B list celebrity. Why? Why is life so unfair? On top of everything she is not happy in her love life either. She dated Luis Hamilton for years. And then they broke up. She can’t find her soulmate ever since. And she is almost 40.

In show-business it’s very hard to define why someone is an A list celebrity, and why some people even when they have all the necessary qualities remain for decades on the B list. It’s a bit easier to explain this phenomenon in the business world, but nevertheless I have been asked very frequently by my team members: Why am I not promoted when I’ve ticked every box officially needed for a promotion?

I will try to give a couple of universal answers to this question. Of course, being universal they are not the correct answers for every situation and every person.

The first important thing is TIMING. I always say that. Similar to a good movie script, where everything is about timing, in career you simply have to wait for your perfect timing. How to recognize when the timing is perfect? From my experience, things should start moving in the right direction and some doors should start opening for you, but you also have to feel good during that process and while passing through those doors. That’s why it’s called perfect. CAUTION: Perfect timing might never come! On a positive side: It’s not the end of the world.

The second thing that is very important, when we are talking about a vertical progress in career, equalizing success with progress in a company hierarchy – is being a bit AGGRESSIVE. Waiting for things to happen just because you are doing a good job is not going to work. Unfortunately, very often, this brings to the front line many rude, too aggressive, arrogant people who justify their behavior as “being result driven” or “wishing the best for the company”. This is strongly connected with company culture and what is promoted and supported as desired behavior. Of course, there is no company that will say that they support being aggressive and rude, but in practice they will promote people behaving like that.

The third thing is becoming a PROTEGE of a senior colleague. I know this might sound really bad. In some cultures, this is associated with very dishonest behavior and negative attitude toward both – mentor and protégé. But I’m talking about finding someone who is going to be able to get to know you well enough and to be able to judge your quality not only based on your KPI’s but also based on how you achieve your results and who you are as a person. Then you have someone who can give you a reality check, but also who can be your best spokesman when it comes to career progress discussions.

Even if all this goes well, what might happen to you is something that I had never thought about – until recently. That maybe, vertical success is actually not your thing. I recently met, during a Creative Mentorship program, one amazing lady, Pamela von Sabljar and she told us (I’m paraphrasing): from being an achiever, I have transformed into someone who finds happiness and purpose in learning.

I’m not there yet. Still fighting with the achiever in me. Maybe he will win in the end. But it’s comforting to know that even if he doesn’t, there is a very good alternative. I’m still inspired by Pamela’s example and story.

So while you are wondering why Jennifer Aniston can’t find real love and she is such a sweetheart, why Robert Downey Jr. never won an Oscar and he is an acting genius, also remember that Meryl Streep was rejected on her first audition because she is not beautiful enough. So, she started working hard on what she is good at. And she beat the system. It was her alternative.

Cheers to Nicole and the alternatives! They are amazing and important.
Business of Telling Stories

August 10, 2016
Almost every time I tell someone I meet in a business context that I have graduated drama and script writing I have to answer the question: So what are you doing here? (here = this business, this company, this conference – depending on the occasion). I have to be honest – I also bring this information up quite often. That’s because I’m very proud of my formal education. I know, sometimes I seem like those parents who have kids that are sport champions and they bring it up every time they start up a conversation with someone. Sometimes, people ask me what my educational background is. They assume I studied law or business.

Depending on the conversation partner and on how interesting he/she is to me, and how much time we have for a talk, I have several answers to this question. And they are all true. They simply differ depending on the level of my engagement in the conversation, level of openness toward the other side and how interesting I want the story about me to sound.

Version 1 – I want to close this topic ASAP and end this conversation

Me: Well, you know, it was tough for an artist at the time. It still is. I had to make some money so I started working in an ad agency.

Version 2 – I want to give an answer that can take conversation further if the other side is smart enough

Me: When I graduated it was during a time of massive expansion of advertising in Serbia. I got many opportunities. Then I figured out that I also have this solid sense of business and that I can move in other directions as well. One thing led to another.

Version 3 – I want the answer to be a bit theoretical and yet the closest one to how I feel and what I think about it

Me: My studies were about how to tell a good story. In a movie or television or on a theater stage. But telling a good story is telling a good story. No matter where you are and what you are doing. So I actually just applied my knowledge of telling stories into different businesses I worked in.

When I look back, telling a good story WAS always the core of my business.

Whenever I worked in an agency or in publishing I brought great stories via ads or magazines. Or via presentations to clients in order to sell what was the best thing we had to sell at that point. In leading teams, I had to create and bring best possible stories in front of the team, stories that would motivate them and bring the team together to achieve better results. While writing e-mails or speeches many times I wrote short stories. When delivering training I tried to bring to the audience characters, interesting stories, some suspense and an interesting and unexpected end.

OK, so what? – you might ask. We are all telling some kind of stories every day. In Serbian language there is even a saying “Pricamtipricu” that has a meaning close to lying or trying to trick someone by telling a story. That’s why there is a big difference between telling any kind of stories and telling good stories.

While for a comprehensive information on this topic you would have to dedicate much more than the 3 minutes you spent reading this, I will offer you my 3 key rules that I learned through my studies and confirmed later on during my career.
1. A story needs to have beginning, a middle part and an ending. Not necessarily in this order. Yes, it sounds very simple. Go through your e-mails or presentations, or remember your last performance review of an employee and analyze – was this always the case?
2. A story has to be probable, not just possible – who is going to buy from you something that, yes, might happen, but even in a theoretical and imagined word there is just a possibility for that to happen? Especially people on higher positions in business – after some time, they start to believe that everything they say and that sounds possible, the audience will buy? Guys and girls, think again. The person telling the story does not change the need for a story to be a good one.
3. You need to include emotions and a personal touch. No one is interested to hear about general things. People want to feel transfer of your emotions toward them. Even if it’s not real. While reading this maybe you would be surprised to learn that I’m extremely anxious wondering if you are going to like this text or not. And now you are thinking either: “Poor guy, let’s give him a like” or “Come on! You are almost 40. Get over it. I’m not giving you a like”. But in both cases there is a certain emotion involved apart from what you think about the quality of this post.
So, when you meet me in person, no matter my job title at the moment – if I’m something in marketing, a media executive, a corporate affairs guy, a theater writer or an entertainment director of a hotel in Las Vegas (my dream job) – I will always be able to tell you that I’m in business of telling stories. And I’m proud of it. Cheers!

Movie recommendation for this weekend is Bambola (1996) by Bigas Luna. With no special reason. A bit bizarre movie for a bit bizarre August.
I Want to Be Titanic

August 5, 2016
Do I want to sink and kill thousands of people? No, but you will have to read it to the very end to understand my new movie related analogy.

My wife asked me few days ago what in my opinion was the best move ever. Asking someone who graduated from film school this question is not very serious. I can give you list of 50 best movies, or list of 20 best Hollywood movies plus 20 best indies. Or 50 from each decade. Or just Italian or Spanish. Or many more… Of course it’s impossible to name one single best movie ever.

But!

If I would HAVE to answer this question (you know when they ask you about salary expectations during job interview and you have to tell at the end?) I would say Titanic (1997) by James Cameron. This is not my favorite movie. Not even in top 20. But, if I would try to apply business type of analysis and judgement, instead of a typical film critic’ approach I would come to this answer. And if I would like to define my business profile and career via movies, then I would definitely appreciate if I would be able to become the Titanic.

Why?
1. It lasts two times regular movie. 3 hours and 14 minutes. I’m not suggesting longer is better but it would be nice to have long successful career.
2. It’s still No.2 box office success (No. 4 adjusted for inflation). The only movie that cashed in more is Avatar from 2009 when already 3D was in place and tickets were much more expensive. Also, I have opinion that you should never be the one who earns the most. Will be explained in the separate post.
3. It was a brave production adventure. For younger generation of my readers – there were quite some special effects in 1997 as well, but it was not the time like today when you can create the whole movie including actors in your computer. Many things were done in a quite old-fashioned way with set decoration and classical film tricks. I respect when someone is doing business in an old-fashioned manner.
4. It’s touching epic story about one of the most famous tragedies ever – after many years. Previous movie about Titanic was done in 1953. I LOVE when someone in business is touching what most of the people are scared of or think it should not be touched. You know when someone tells you: “Nooo, you should not deal with that. No one has questioned that for decades”.
5. It has a great mesmerizing story. You can like it or not but it’s very good piece of storytelling that makes those 3+ hours look like 15 minutes. I simply love and admire well-crafted stories. My whole career is based on telling (hopefully good) stories.
6. Cast is the cast of the underdogs. Kate Winslet was not a typical beauty and she did only Sense and Sensibility (1995) and Jude (1996) before, and Leonardo DiCaprio was rising kid star at the time, but still very young one. Quite a gamble by Cameron – for Hollywood standards. Is there a better thing in business then beating competitors with an underdog brand or team of young people? Not for me.
7. It won 11 Oscars. Yes, we can all pretend that we don’t care about awards. But we all like to get them. It’s also nice when award comes with some money.
And above all those reasons I hope I will be in position at one point to stand on a bow of a ship and say: “I’m the king of the world!” My world.

So weekend movie recommendation is obviously Titanic. Recommended drink – of course – Champagne. Or at least Prosecco for the ones with cheaper tickets. Cheers!
Dear Boss, Thank You!

August 4, 2016
There are a couple of events that are, by default, very important in your life. In your personal life those events are weddings, graduations, having children or going on an amazing trip or even experiencing a big love that never really happened. Or trying marijuana for the first time.

In your professional life you can also experience those events. But as I already stated in my post Career in Transition, in this part of the world achievements are not usually globally relevant, so instead of making a big deal out of achieving “successes” I will tell you about some of the key advice that I got from my superiors and the most important things they did for me at the time, their acts and attitudes that I still remember and that were key to my future progress as a professional, and probably as a person as well.

I changed quite a number of bosses and while some were amazing, some were average, and some were… Let’s stop here. But what some of them did for me actually doesn’t necessarily match my overall perception of them as professionals, executives, my superiors or even characters. What I want to underline here is that you can learn or benefit even from a boss who is not the one that you would give the highest grades to or tell the best stories about.

TRUST. I was only 25 years old and just took over an important marketing role with quite a big budget. All the while working under a new boss who just hired me. We were about to launch a new product. Big one. Important one. After three months he told me during a weekly meeting: “Look, I see you are getting it and you are doing a good job. So do your thing and let me know if there is something that I can help you with”. Coming from a strictly controlled environment on my previous job this was like a nuclear booster for me. For the following 12 months I worked my ass off and I was super happy to do that. I worked weekends, nights, days, nights again – but I was super motivated to make it work. Because someone trusted me and I had a feeling that I’m doing it for the team as well as for myself. It felt like it was my own business I was running.

RESPECT. I got a new CEO at one point. It was his first international assignment. He was also quite unfamiliar with the industry and the topics. Smart guy but more of a CFO becoming a CEO type. Me at the time: looking into figures only when I really really really had to. Big believer in creativity, people management and big ideas (the second one didn’t change through time). After a couple of months my boss told me: “Look, you are good with things I’m not very fond of. I’m good with things you are not very excited about. Let’s use that and help each other”. We never liked each other too much, I think. I didn’t like some of his behaviors, I think he didn’t like mine either. I was sometimes too cocky for a person who is not No. 1 of the company. Simply put, we would never be friends outside the office. But we established a good working relationship by respecting each other’s strengths and weaknesses.

SUPPORT. Once I got a big and unexpected promotion and became superior to many older and more experienced people who also wanted that job. Since day one, a couple of them were after me. I’m sure some of them had a voodoo doll with my photo. And they did whatever they could to take me down. Of course in most cases they tried to establish a connection with my boss and to avoid interacting with me in certain discussions and decisions. In 100% cases, he was fair and told them – go to Stevan and discuss it with him. It was an important lesson for them, but also for me, because of the similar situations I had later.

Based on those three examples I established my rules of leadership that were often surprising and confusing to people at the beginning:
1. Surprise your team members by giving them tasks which are above their formal level and empower them to make important decisions by themselves. Yes, it’s scary for you and for them but results might be simply amazing!
2. Admit to your team that they are doing quite some things better than you. It will not hurt your authority. It will just make your team results better. I said to many of my sales guys that they sell much better than me. After that they were selling even better.
3. Always stand 100% behind your direct reports. If you can’t do that – fire them. If you can’t fire them (for whatever reason) leave your job and find the team that you can support. Never talk behind the back of your direct report with their reports. If there is an issue sit all together.
Did I always act 100% led by those 3 rules? Well, it’s hardly possible to achieve that if you work in a complex environment of a multinational company. But I always did my best for it to be over 90%. No one’s perfect. Not even me. Cheers to all good bosses!
Leading Your Emotions

August 1, 2016

Monday morning office reading.

I have already said in one of my previous posts that working in this part of the world includes higher emotional notes while doing business. If I were to be very explicit and speak my native drama language: we go from comedy to tragedy and back in 30 minutes or less. I’m a graduated drama writer, I have a lot of experience working with artists and journalists, so one could say I have an unofficial PhD in dealing with high emotions at work.

During job interviews you usually get questions about your leadership style. I never thought too much about that because leadership was kind of a natural thing for me. It looked to me like explaining how to ride a bicycle or run. But then I started thinking about it a bit more. I will explain 3 situations because I hate big quotes, general wisdoms and tips and tricks that you can find on Facebook and LinkedIn posts.

Once I was in a position to take over a team that came to the very end in cooperation with their previous supervisor. They simply didn’t manage to find the way to work together. Supervisor was right, but still… Elegant solution was to do some kind of re-shuffling of duties and I got this team. No one was humiliated. At the first meeting I was the only new person there. But I jumped immediately into the topic and started working on major issues right away. After the meeting, the marketing director approached me and said: “You said all the same things as the colleague who led the team before. They were after his head and now they smile and they are happy to listen to you. What is the deal?”

Respecting people’s emotions is one of the key things while leading teams in my opinion. You can tell someone bad news in a way that hurts the least or you can tell them very good news but people will still feel like shit. Respect emotions.

The second example refers to the time when I was unable to establish successful cooperation with one of my peers. Nature of the job was pushing us toward very close cooperation and it simply didn’t work in the long term. After one big and unpleasant talk about it, with the outcome that one of us should leave the company, we had a presentation for major client. And the presentation went extremely good. Few weeks later, other colleagues were shocked by the fact that no one could tell or feel anything about what is going on in the backstage. It looked like well-rehearsed presentation of two guys who work smoothly together.

It’s again about respecting emotions. There is always a time and a place for everything. Even if you have to tell someone toughest things pick the time and place to do it. And exclude the unnecessary audience.

While my first two examples are about staying and fighting, my last one is about leaving. I think that one of the worst things that can happen to you as a leader of the team is to stand in front of them, lie to them and know that they are aware of it. I was in a position at one point of my career to do that too often. Sometimes you can fight against it but sometimes you are simply defeated. And I’m not the person who plays Force Majeure card. “The big boss ordered” or “We have to do it like that…”

Then your only choice is to leave. In that way you respect emotions and intelligence of the people you lead, but you also respect your own emotions. Of course, if integrity is something you value.

Leading your own emotions is essential for successful leadership of teams and people. Respecting other people’s emotions is even more important. This doesn’t mean that you can’t be tough and demanding. It just means that people should respect you enough to wish you to be successful. Otherwise it’s like forcing someone to love you.

Showing emotions in business is not my cup of tea. But respecting emotions in business is. Cheers to that!